On October 11, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a voter pre-registration measure spearheaded this year by the New America Foundation and backed by FairVote, Common Cause, Californians for Electoral Reform and many others. It establishes that all Californians turning 17 can register to vote. Voter pre-registration measures allowing 16-year-olds to pre-register have also become law in recent years in North Carolina and Florida. A member of the Massachusetts statehouse leadership announced last week that a similar measure is her top priority in coming weeks, and the Washington, D.C. City Council last week unanimously backed pre-registration legislation.

FairVote's work pushing pre-registration since 2005 is also making a big difference in Rhode Island, where a major canvassing effort (the “Make it Happen” campaign) is underway in support of pre-registration. A Pew Charitable Trusts research team currently is examining the impact of pre-registration on FairVote's goal of universal registration of all soon-to-be-eligible voters, ideally twinned with civic programs explaining voting mechanics and the history of suffrage.

The bad news--see what good election and transparency bills the governor vetoed here

North Carolina Adopts Youth Preregistration

New law includes high school civics standards

North Carolina governor Bev Perdue signed H.B. 908, an election reform bill that includes the FairVote-endorsed policy of youth preregistration and improved opportunities for voter registration in high schools. Following Hawaii and Florida, North Carolina becomes the third state to set a uniform voter registration age of 16-years-old. The bill passed the House and the Senate by votes of 107-6 and 32-3, respectively.

The new law takes effect January 1, 2010 and allows 16 and 17-year-olds to "preregister" to vote, including a provision requiring schools to provide voter registration opportunities to students in public schools every year. The bill also encourages schools to expand voter registration in schools by working with local boards of election. Youth preregistration bills have been introduced in several other states this year, including Arizona (HB 2384), California (AB 30), Kansas (HB 2256), Maryland (SB 671), Michigan (SB 61), Rhode Island (SB 5005), Washington (HB 1193) and the District of Columbia (Bill 18-345).

Although there seems to be some
uncertainty as to when it may come back, the General Assembly is now
taking a breather after the hectic days of June. I wanted to let you
know what action--both good and bad--was taken on FairVote's
legislative agenda, and how your donation now will be automatically doubled.

Through
July 4, 2009, any new donation will be doubled through a generous offer
from the national FairVote's board of directors. For more, see http://fairvote.org/donate.
It'd be hard to find a better way (fireworks and barbecues not
included) to celebrate the great American tradition of democracy. Thank
you!

2. Pre-registration approved by both chambers

Youth voter pre-registrationhas now been approved by both the RI Senate and House, for the fourth
year in a row! S 85, sponsored by Rhoda Perry, was approved by the RI
House late last Thursday night. Its house companion, H 5005, sponsored
by Rep. Pacheco, is still waiting for a vote over on the Senate floor,
but we're optimistic the vote will be taken soon.

3. Direct elections for Senate vacancies must still be "crossed over"

Last
Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee also approved the House version
of a bill that would mandate direct elections for vacant US Senate
seats in our state. Once the Assembly gets going again, we hope for a
quick "cross-over" vote on the duplicate bills that have passed in both
the House and Senate in the opposite chambers, and the Senate Judiciary
vote is a great first start.

And fantastic news from Connecticut: Governor M. Jodi Rell, a
Republican, just signed into law a very similar measure requiring
elections for US Senate vacancies. In Rhode Island, of course, support
for the "Blago bill" has been broadly bipartisan, and we're hopeful
that Gov. Carcieri will join Governor Rell in supporting elections for
every US Senator.

In her official statement,
Governor Rell said "We are fortunate to live in a participatory
democracy, where our people do indeed have a voice in how they are
governed. This law is consistent with my long-held belief that we
should take every action possible to involve our citizens in their
government."

We couldn't have put it better ourselves.

4. National popular vote bill defeated

If passed the
national popular vote bill would have joined Rhode Island in a compact
already passed by five other states to directly elect the
president--instead it was voted down on the House floor on June 18. We
at FairVote, along with many others in the state who support the
legislation, were naturally disappointed by that outcome. But the RI
Senate previously approved an identical measure on a 26-9 vote, and the
same bill will be back next year. For good reason: 74% of Rhode
Islanders want a national popular vote for president.
Once enacted by states with a majority (270/538) of electoral votes,
the national popular vote bill will guarantee the presidency to whoever
wins the most votes in all 50 states and DC.

STATE HOUSE – The Senate today approved legislation to join Rhode Island into a pact with other states to ensure that the candidates who win the most votes nationwide in presidential elections are the ones who win the White House.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation magazine, highlights FairVote's research in an important piece on the "broad support" growing in the states for the National Popular Vote plan to elect the president.